50A Idea

[lawnspecialties]

I am by NO means an electrical engineer. I still don't know 100% what the true difference is between amps and watts and volts. But I had a recent idea and I wonder if this would help us out with our Work & Play (30amps).

We've taken the camper out three times so far. The first was to Willow Tree. During the weekend, the breaker at Willow Tree's pole tripped twice. We were on the 30A plug and both times, the AC was running and the water heater was on.

At our recent race, we were on the generator power. My generator puts out gobs of power. 10.5KW rated with 13KW surge watts. The only issue we had was the AC tripped its own breaker one time.

When the water heater is on, the AC is running, the TV is on, and maybe Mama decides to dry her hair or make some toast, we're pulling a lot of power.

So the question. If I start plugging into a 50A outlet with a 30A adapter, would this help us out at all? In other words, would we be getting the same 110 volts but 50amps? I still have a 30A cord so that may reduce it. But does this make sense or will it not help us out at all? As I said, I'm not sure about electrical stuff but I'm hoping this could be a help.

[Old-Biscuit]

rk911 wrote:

kennethwooster wrote:
We spend the summer in an old park in Colorado. They have 30s and 120s. We get their early and get a 30. We can use 1A/C, and have learned when to tour off A/C, to run microwave and etc. It's just something you learn. I would not fiddle with the power,just learn what to turn off.

120's???? :h

15/20A receptacle (120's....regular outlet)

[rk911]

kennethwooster wrote:
We spend the summer in an old park in Colorado. They have 30s and 120s. We get their early and get a 30. We can use 1A/C, and have learned when to tour off A/C, to run microwave and etc. It's just something you learn. I would not fiddle with the power,just learn what to turn off.

120's???? :h

[rk911]

wa8yxm wrote:
The biggest difference (And this may help) is that instead of having to get dressed and to out and reset the PARK breaker, You will trip your own 30 amp Main breaker inside the RV.

YOU DO NOT WANT TO DRAW more than 30 amps through your shore cord else you may get a visit from the local fire dept.. They still make house calls you know.

if his RV has 30-amp service I don't see how he could draw more than that without tripping the main RV breaker. He can only draw what he can draw.

[kcmoedoe]

MitchF150 wrote:
When it's available, I hook to the 50a with a 30a adapter just because I can and while it usually makes no difference, but most of the loop are 30a campers and guess what plug they are plugging into? On hot days, everyone has their A/C running, so it's hitting that 30a circuit pretty good I figure..

Not as many using the 50a I figure, so the voltage drop probably is not as much as on the heavily used 30a circuit for the campground..

I don't know if that's how it really works, but I've seen the 30a voltage down to around 110v in the afternoon where it was 120v in the morning... (still within spec, but it's dropped a bit)

So far when hooked to the 50a, it's been 120v all day. And you don't get any more amps then what your trailer is wired for (30a), so that's not an advantage to plugging into the 50a.

Just my experience with it.. 🙂

Good luck!
Mitch

The 30 amp and 50 amp plugs are using the exact same wiring. There are no separate circuits for 50 amp or 30 amp.

[kennethwooster]

We spend the summer in an old park in Colorado. They have 30s and 120s. We get their early and get a 30. We can use 1A/C, and have learned when to tour off A/C, to run microwave and etc. It's just something you learn. I would not fiddle with the power,just learn what to turn off.

[wa8yxm]

The biggest difference (And this may help) is that instead of having to get dressed and to out and reset the PARK breaker, You will trip your own 30 amp Main breaker inside the RV.

YOU DO NOT WANT TO DRAW more than 30 amps through your shore cord else you may get a visit from the local fire dept.. They still make house calls you know.

[Lynnmor]

You may also be dealing with low voltage. Get a volt meter and understand that the AC can be damaged by voltage below 104 or 108, depending on model.

[rk911]

lawnspecialties wrote:
I am by NO means an electrical engineer. I still don't know 100% what the true difference is between amps and watts and volts. But I had a recent idea and I wonder if this would help us out with our Work & Play (30amps).

We've taken the camper out three times so far. The first was to Willow Tree. During the weekend, the breaker at Willow Tree's pole tripped twice. We were on the 30A plug and both times, the AC was running and the water heater was on.

At our recent race, we were on the generator power. My generator puts out gobs of power. 10.5KW rated with 13KW surge watts. The only issue we had was the AC tripped its own breaker one time.

When the water heater is on, the AC is running, the TV is on, and maybe Mama decides to dry her hair or make some toast, we're pulling a lot of power.

So the question. If I start plugging into a 50A outlet with a 30A adapter, would this help us out at all? In other words, would we be getting the same 110 volts but 50amps? I still have a 30A cord so that may reduce it. But does this make sense or will it not help us out at all? As I said, I'm not sure about electrical stuff but I'm hoping this could be a help.

if your camper has 30-amp service it matters not if you connect to a 30-amp or 50-amp receptacle you'll still get the same 110/120-volts. just be sure to use a proper 50-amp/30-amp adapter.

[DownTheAvenue]

A/C = 1400 watts
water heater = 1400 watts
refrigerator = 8 watts
converter (no load) = 4 watts
microwave = 1400 watts
hair drier = 1200 watts
coffee pot = 1000 watts

All of these together equal 42 amps

With the A/C on and just one other high load, a 30 amp breaker will easily trip.

Run the water heater and refrigerator on gas and learn to turn off the A/C when using the microwave.

[Bobbo]

On a 30 amp rig, hair dryers require the AC and electric water heater element to be turned OFF. DW discovered that the hard way. Several times. She finally got the message. Of course, it doesn't take long to dry her hair, then we turn them back on. The only other thing that has tripped our breaker was using the AC and the convection/microwave oven with both convection element AND microwave unit on. As long as it is just the microwave unit and AC, we are good.

[time2roll]

Put the fridge and water to propane for best results in a 30 amp RV running an air conditioner.

Suggest to DW to use the hair dryer on some lower setting than high/max.

[DownTheAvenue]

spud1957 wrote:
If your AC is tripping it's own breaker then you have an issue with your AC compressor.

Not true. If the volts go down, then the amps go up. So, the supply could be 110 to 115 volts, and the amp draw could easily exceed a 20 amp breaker on start up.

[rockylarson]

A couple of things to note:

1) amps are "pulled" by the devices being used,not pushed by the source.

2) 50amp service is two legs of 50amp each. (reason for 4 prongs, not three) for a total of 100amp available to be "pulled".

3) Using a 30amp adapter only pulls amps from one of the two 50amp legs if attached to a 50amp service (it also limits you to 30amps).

4) your available amps are limited to the lowest rating in the power stream, be it at the source such as 50, 30, 20 or 15amp recepticle, any adapters being used with similiar ratings, or an extention cord.

5) converters, electric hot water heaters, and refrigerators set on electric are often overlooked as amp pullers and come on randomly so
the issue can appear to be sporatic.

6)I am not an electrican but the above simplifies it for me and keeps me out of harms way.

[Homer1]

No. It will not raise either your amp or voltage. All you are doing is converting 50 amps down to 30. Let me suggest putting a second service drop from the available 20 outlet into your RV from it to a dedicated receptacle. Then your wife can use the additional 20 amps. Keeping in mind the 20 amp service must be on a separate breaker, most c/g's are today. I have been doing this for a number of years w/o a hitch. It's great for space heaters in cool weather also.

[MitchF150]

When it's available, I hook to the 50a with a 30a adapter just because I can and while it usually makes no difference, but most of the loop are 30a campers and guess what plug they are plugging into? On hot days, everyone has their A/C running, so it's hitting that 30a circuit pretty good I figure..

Not as many using the 50a I figure, so the voltage drop probably is not as much as on the heavily used 30a circuit for the campground..

I don't know if that's how it really works, but I've seen the 30a voltage down to around 110v in the afternoon where it was 120v in the morning... (still within spec, but it's dropped a bit)

So far when hooked to the 50a, it's been 120v all day. And you don't get any more amps then what your trailer is wired for (30a), so that's not an advantage to plugging into the 50a.

Just my experience with it.. 🙂

Good luck!

Mitch